When you need a language to make friends

I´ve been there. Done that.
That´s what everybody tells me when I talk about my year ahead.
They´re right.. At least to some point. When I arrived in Texas as an exchange students I barely spoke English. I was doing OK, but still pretty bad in my opinion. I was one of the worst students in my English class back in Germany.
Gladly Americans are more "accepting" when it comes to people who don't speak perfect English yet. This made it so much easier for me. But to be honest, when they said its fine how I pronounced the word or how I put phrases (and I knew it was wrong) it annoyed the shit out of me. I wanted to be corrected. I wanted to get better in English (I´m still on the road, that´s for sure).
Because the feeling of being part of a group, but not really understanding what they´re saying sucks. It´s hard to become friends with someone who speaks a language you don´t know. I´m not saying it´s impossible, because obviously it was possible before we had computers and teachers who helped us to learn different languages. But I needed a language to make friends.
And now it´s all over again. I´m not scared (surprisingly) and I haven´t been before I went to America. But sometimes language barrier is just frustrating.
And I think this is why it´s so important that more people learn languages or become exchange students or take Gap Years in a whole different country. It opens your mind about certain issues and importances. I can only speak to myself, but I want to learn more languages. Language is the first step  of understanding.
I know it´s going to be tough but I´m trying to make the most of it and speak somewhat understandable Spanish.
To everybody who understands me, please stay with me x

Up & Away

Time went by like nothing. A minute ago I was about to graduate and now I´m in the south.
This year is going to be great. That´s what I´m telling myself since I got accepted.
This year means freedom for me.
Yes, I will have to work every day.
Yes, I have a job to take seriously.
And also, yes, I will be depending on my own. And that´s exactly how I like it.

Why in the world should I take a gap year? Well, because of the world.
It´s quite unfair to be expected to know what you want to do for the rest of your life by the age of 18. We barely became adults.
It´s alright if we don´t have a clue what to do with our lives. We are going to work our whole life in a job, until we are old and grumpy. What is wrong about trying to see the world from a different angle? What is so wrong about trying to figure out who you are and what matters to you?
Nothing. There´s nothing wrong about it.
It is your life. Your body. And you will need to live with it till the time runs out.
Just go ahead and pack your stuff. Start an adventure. Make new friends. Make new experiences. Because however this year will turn out, it´s an experience. Whether they´re good or bad.
Nonetheless they´re experiences and you´ll appreciate them later on.

Sevilla, here I come.
Cheers to the hopefully best year of my life x

Distance

Something I used to feel.

I´m here

you are there

time is everything but fair. 

I wake up in the morning

my first thought is calling

you,  who is about to fall asleep

and all I hear is beep.

Time is passing by,

until I see you in the eye.

worries are taking their toll on me,

why can´t we just be...

I´m here

you are there

time is everything but fair.

I wan´t to escape,

disapparate,

just to be with you,

is that what you want too?

I can´t tell anymore,

is it worth fighting for?

You cease aspiring, 

but I won´t stop desiring.

Any other girls,

or is it just me?

Watermelon juice

When I was little I never really liked watermelons. It was just too juicy and tasteless and I was never really one fore liking pits in fruits.

Oh god. What did I dispense my whole life?

During my latest trip to Texaas I have witnessed the best way of consuming a watermelon.

Watermelon juice.

I stayed over at my best friends house and as usually, I was greeted with some of the most delicious recipes. 

For most of the people watermelon juice is probably nothing new, but to me (a passionate watermelon despiser) it was a surprising outcome on a hot Texas day.

Actually, it´s not really that special, but it´s a joy nonetheless. It´s so easy to make and it´s a wonderful treat for sunny days.

This little glass of juice taught me how much you miss out on things, just by refusing to try them.

May your taste be ever in your favor x 

Mallorca - one time a year

A couple of weeks ago 5 lovely ladies and myself went on a trip to Mallorca, Spain. To be honest among the main priorities such as relaxing, swimming and reading was also party. 

It was a miracle that we all actually got there because I got injured the night before and was about to cancel but I could persuade my dad last minute. And our car broke down on the way to the airport... great! But nonetheless we got there.

I wasn´t allowed to swim at all, therefore I was stuck in the appartement all alone.. well Harry Potter and me spend quite some time together didn´t we? But I was fine with it, it was exactly the relaxing holiday that I just needed.

Hence my arm got better by time I was able to step outside at least for a bit and saw bits and pieces of the stunning island! It was incredible hot and sticky, but it was wonderful. The weather reminded me a lot of Texas.. :) Palma itself is absolutely beautiful. The streets are full with artists who are painting or doing some handcraft, horse-drawn carriages, huge bubbles and tourists like me who are just enjoying life! :) 

Palma is quite an arty city. There are little hidden shops or art gallery that you can visit for free. That mainly sums up what I´m interested in haha.

If you are a little bit nerdy like me and somewhat interested in old things, please do me a favour and visit Palma Fine Books. It´s an english bookshop in the middle of palma, close to the (massive and outragous) Cathedral (Calle Morey 7) . The shop is very unique and you probably won´t find it a second time on earth. Already at the entrance books are stapled till they drop (lets hope not). In this shop you will probably find everything you need to know about history. I am not even sure if the owner know how many books he has, but it´s sure as hell a lot! This shop is amazing ro rummage and grub around and I managed to find one of my guilty pleasures: old maps. There is something about maps. I can´t really put my finger on it but everytime I see one I instantly want to look at it and discover it. It just makes me happy to buy maps :) Therefore I bought a really old India map and now its hanging in my room in all its glory! Without further ado, just pay this old man a visit, have a chat with him, buy something or not (he won´t care) and just enjoy the vibes that are coming from this tiny little (actually huge) shop.

If you are already on Mallorca, you just have to visit the Ballermann (well at least as a German). It´s quite.. special. I can´t say I don´t like since it´s quite fun to party but I wouldn´t necessarily recommend it to families or older generations ;) It´s known as the German part of Mallorca and quite.. wild. Nonetheless as a youngster it wouldn´t be wrong to pay it a visit.

All in all I´ve got to say, I took quite a liking in Mallorca! But it´s always the same game; A place is only as good as the people you meet there. And if that is true, Mallorca is amazing.

Have a good one xx

London calling

London is always a good idea. Ever since my first visit, I knew I would come back here one day. And now my life goal is to earn enough money to life there one day. I am aware that it seems utopistic, but once you have fallen in love with a city it´s hard to  forget about it. My recent trip to London has been... inspiring. I spend five days of walking and cycling through London and I must say, it´s tiring. But it´s well worth it. 

We booked our accomodations over Airbnb and I highly recommend it! We lived in Shoreditch and our host was very lovely! So here is to everyone who has to prioritize their money and still wants to have a nice bed to fall asleep at night! :)

The first day I was trying to pound all sights. But to be honest. If you are in London, almost everything appears to be a sight. It might be an old, creaky door or the famous red busses, it makes your heart cringe and your hands fiddle with the camera. The city is just full of quirky things at every corner.

Being the typical tourist, I went on a boats tour and I must say it was the best idea ever. Fortunately we catched a sunny day and it was mesmerizing to cruise on the river. I even caught a sunburn haha. It was definitely worth it. Another recommendation which I mentioned above is to hire cycles sponsored by Barclays. You can´t really miss them, they are everywhere in the city. It costs only 2 pounds for 24 hours which is way cheaper than the sub and you see so much more of the city! But it´s fair to say the traffic is quite.. hectic and it needs time to get used to driving on the left.

It´s hard to choose what my favorite part of London has been. It might be the vibes in the street, the Tate modern (which is free & very inspiring and not to forget you have a lovely view from the café on the Harry Potter bridge in all its glory), the lovely Parks, the Camden Lock Market (I bought an old Polaroid Camera for 25 pounds), Whole Foods or just the good old Big Ben. Oh and not to forget probably the best shopping place in the world!! 

I really can´t choose.

But maybe.. well there has been quite a unique incident. Since over a year now I am keeping up with Charly Cox blog Style the Natives. You probably heard of her already. Well, I saw her posting about this show called Then (incredible, incredible show and done by so talented people! Go watch it or get involved! :) ) and that she´ll be hosting the Q&A afterwards. Me, being the massive (secret) fangirl bought tickets for the show. You can´t blame me, it was too much of an coincident that I am exactly at this time in London, to not buy it. I saw her in the lobby before the show and I was too scared to go up to her, actually I hid in the bathroom haha :D But somehow I got my self together and managed to crab a hold of her while she was just getting of the phone. Believe me, it took all my guts to tell her how much her blog means to me and that she´s such an inspiration for me. I am not exactly sure what I expected her to answer to my love-confession since I didn´t plan anything at all (way to go, I stuttered the whole time). But: she was the sweetest person on earth. I am glad that it meant a lot to her, because that´s why I did it. I wanted her to know that she touches a lot of hearts. 

Yes, that was a pretty impressive moment in London and I won´t forget it.

If you want to see the marvelous view over the city, then climb up the Primrose hill. You can spot many couples spending the last ray of sunlight romanticly cuddled together, but you still  can enjoy the view if you are a single pringle like me haha. It´s definitely wort it, even if its a little bit cloudy like it was when I was there.

Well, how to end an endless story about being in love with a city? All I can say is, crab your bags and go! Wherever you wanna go, just go! And if its London, go right now!!! Haha, but I´m serious, this city has been breathtaking and I will visit London all my life. 

I will leave you with some snapshots (sorry if they are not the best quality I took them with my phone) of London who will always stay dear to me heart,

hope y´all have a lovely night x

 

hope y´all have a lovely day & night x

Breathing for Moments In Time

I always have been a massive fan of quotes. I just think that they exist for a reason, obviously. I mean we read them and think "wow that actually is true", but what the real challenge here is to actually live by them. I think I don´t even know a handful of people who actually live by a quote. But to be honest, I think they are inspiring! Because they are being honest and truthful with themselves. The quote or motto might not suit or appeal everybody but if someone choses to life by them they become powerful. They lead you to where you want to be in your life, because it´s your choice to life by them.
I wish I actually could really live by my favorite ones, but maybe I am still too unexperienced to do so.

Anyways I was thinking about a couple of quotes and I wanted to share my thoughts.

The probably most popular quote anybody could live by must be YOLO. I think even in the older generations most of the people have heard about it. It might sound stupid when you say it and it´s probably used for bad reasons most of the time or as an excuse.. but if you actually think about it, you truly only live once! Why don´t make it the best time in your life? It´s not like you are getting any seconds back. Just make the best out of it, because it´s your life.

Another one I just recently saw was Collect moments not things. That´s officially one of my favorite quotes now. Because it´s so true! Sometimes you just go out in the world and buy stuff or take pictures of things you think are important to you.. but maybe after some time you realize, it´s not the things what make your life special and worth it. It´s the moments you share with your loved ones. A beautiful or horrible moment will burn into your soul forever. But I´m not so sure if the newest cell phone will.

One of my best friends dad celebrated his 50th birthday this spring. He hold a speech talking about his life with his wife and his children. He remembered the day he got married and that his father set him free to the marriage with a quote: Way is, who forgives others to be different. I have never once forgotten this quote and I find it extremely beautiful. I already passed down this quote a couple of times to people I care about because I think you can take so much out of this quote and you could let it possibly change your life. Just the sentence itself is amazing. There are so many people trying to be way through reading a lot of books or watching a lot of movies. But I think the only true way to be way and in center with yourself is to see how you treat others and your loved ones. We need to learn to accept the others for who they are, not for what we want them to be. And I think that truly represents love if you can forgive others to be different.

Well my last quote for tonight is out of one of my favorite books which I already introduced on this blog.. jupp it´s The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbowsky. In the book there is this moment when Charlie tries to comfort Sam about her love life and he is saying We Accept the Love We Think We Deserve. 
If we are honest to ourselves, most of the people probably question themselves about "how do I deserce this, how do I deserve you?" Because usually people have insecurities and think that they are not good enough to get certain things. That´s why it´s so hard for some people to accept their luck in life and to see, realize and accept things or love. It´s our nature to put ourselves down, just in case it might be true.

This quote might be a tad bit sad, but at least it´s an honest one. Maybe we all can have peace with ourselves and learn to accept the things which are good for us.

So that´s it for tonight, but be sure to read a couple more quotes or life lines here and there! :)

Quick City Trip To Heidelberg :))

Well a couple of days ago, me, my family and some friends from America visit a couple of cities in Germany. And here is the next one I want to write about! It´s Heidelberg!!
This is probably one of the prettiest cities in Germany or Europe I have ever been to!
It is located as one of the larger cities in south-west Germany. There are still a lot of old buildings, because luckily this city wasn´t bombed much in WW2. My favorite houses are the timbered ones. I just think they look absolutely beautiful and it reminds of what life was like as a kid because I loved to look at houses like that and apparently I still do haha.

First we took some sort of railway up the hill to visit the castle or what is left of it! I have to say the view from the castle down on the city is absolutely breath taking!!
We actually were witness of a wedding and I though it was a cute idea to get married in castle Heidelberg! Although I have to say the couple didn´t look really happy, sorry :(
Apart from ruins you can see the wine cellar which contains centuries-old wine (crazy to imagine right?) and an old pharmacy where you can buy little gifts.
We had lunch at a cute little beer garden which is a typical thing for Germany haha.

(You can´t really tell in the picture, but there is a river right through the city which is a major plus (; )

Afterwards we walked a little bit through the city and just relaxed with a nice ice in the hand :)
Oh and we visit the student prison!! They used to put college students in there when they have been naughty. And these lovely student used their time wisely and decided to paint or write on the walls in the prison. Now it´s a tourism's attraction and I have to say some things written are just hilarious!!:D

Haha the last picture just cracks me up!!:D The cuss words back that time weren´t that creative either as ours are!:D
Anyways I had fun writing this, because I love looking back at things and remembering them!
I´ll just leave with a random picture of the ride home :)

The Reason I´m alive

I would like to introduce my newest favorite song!! It´s called The Big Bang by Rock Mafia!!

The song is actually kind of old as it was written in 2010! But I heard it in a couple of commercials and I recently watched the movie LOL which has the song in it as well. Surprisingly it didn´t have a top spot in the charts, but nonetheless it is an extraordinary song!

The official music video of The Big Bang is starred with Miley Cyrus and Kevin Zegers. Basically the story of the video is that Kevins girlfriend appears as a ghost to him until he suddenly realizes that she is in fact dead, but he just disavows it.

I really love the music video, because it shows real love and passion. Miley and Kevin are perfect for this song, they represent it so well! I really love it! :)

My favorite line is: 

Some people like to talk

But I´m into doing

What I feel like doing

When I´m inspired.

Cause I think it´s a good quote to live by. Do what makes you happy and don´t let the others rule your life. If you don´t feel like doing it, just don´t do it. It´s your life, live it to the fullest.

The beauty of lake constance

Sometimes it´s not necessary to go far away to see beautiful things. A couple of days ago, my sisters host mum from America flew to Germany to visit us and we decided to show her some of the wonderful places around here! Well actually it´s not really "around here" since I live close to frankfurt and the lake constance is well.. around constance, but it´s closer to frankfurt than to America anyway (;

And another plus of the lake is that my grandma lives in a little city called Radolfzell and her house is not even half a mile away from the lake! I used to spend my summer at her house all the time when I was little! So I grew up loving it!

That is the beautiful seaside! Well actually it should be lakeside.. but that just sounds well.. I´ll leave it with seaside haha
This spot is in Constance itself, but you can find many similar spots all around the lake. They are great if you just want to relax. Watching the water always calmed me and I love to take a book or something to draw with me. After two hours all your problems are solved (:
This song used to be one of my favorites back in the days and it kind of fits :)

The two pictures above are taken in the lovely city Meersburg! As the name says it´s right next to the lake! It´s a beautiful old city with the famous style of houses! It has everywhere cute little restaurants, café´s or little gift shops! 

What I love about this city (more likely a village) that each house is unique! There is no way two houses next to each other look like the same! (At least when they aren´t build recently). It´s refreshing, because I happened to notice that in America it´s not a rare sight, a couple of houses looking exactly the same. That´s why I love going into older cities in Europe :)

This is probably one of the most interesting villages in the world! These are called stilt houses and they are build on stems. The wonderful and remarkable thing about them is that they are completely made out of natural resources! The construction time goes back to the Bronze Age and even the Stone Age!

They offer a guided tour, well usually I´m not to fond of guided tours or museums in general, but I have to say that this tour was extraordinary!  The guide was very professional and had an amazing way to bring the old ages to us! What the people back in these Ages did was absolutely remarkable! They achieved work we could never even dream of accomplishing! I learned that their normal needed calories demanded about 11 Big Mac´s!!! And I wouldn´t call that normal these days! 

All in all, once in a while it´s nice to have some cultural refreshment and to see some lovely places :) It´s not my last time that I´ll be seeing this lake, that´s for sure!

That´s just a picture I took on my way home to Frankfurt.. I just love the fields and I´m a massive sucker for sunsets :)